This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it! The psalmist said it, but my heart is right there with him today. I am sitting on the beach, looking out at the Pacific Ocean, and remembering. Driving the two miles down the hill from my SoCal house, ‘me and my posse of boys’ noted how many American flags were displayed. Today is that day that Americans have designated Memorial Day – a day to remember those who have sacrificially served our country.
I wish to proclaim this day (whenever you read this) as our Spiritual Memorial Day—your Spiritual Memorial Day! You do not have to have a parade around your neighborhood, but I propose that you STOP and REMEMBER God’s faithfulness in your life.
In fact, in Joshua chapter Four, the Lord instructed Joshua to have his men choose stones . . . each one to serve as a memorial for the times God had shown himself faithful to his people. And then, when their children asked about the stones, they would serve as monuments of God’s faithfulness, and give them a chance to talk to their children about the goodness of God.
And so, as I look out across the water, the waves continuing to roll into shore, one after another, I consider the monuments I might erect—monuments of God’s faithfulness for which I am thankful, and choose to remember this day, my Spiritual Memorial Day.
Looking back a long way, I remember and am thankful to God . . .
~that I was raised by a woman who loved and revered God—my mother—who gave birth to me when she was 45 years old. (okay, that was old in 1960)
~because I remember the numerous Christian teachers I had, who spanned many years—Sunday School teachers, classroom teachers, my youth leaders and pastors—who modeled Christ in some capacity to me
I am thankful to God
~for the development of a Christian perspective from an early age that became a solid worldview as I became an adult….such that:
I BELIEVE the Bible is the Word of God – the way I can learn about God and his character - who he is, what he does, what he thinks of me, and what he wants for me.
I BELIEVE that God is sovereign. He has a plan for the world, and a unique purpose for me. While I am invited to spend eternity with him—BEGINNING RIGHT NOW—he does not force himself or his will on me. I am free to choose, free to love whoever I will.
I BELIEVE that God gives all of his children gifts. AND if I choose to understand, apprehend and exercise mine, I will know true adventure that is unparalleled in the world! To love God is to serve him and serve others . . . Those two pillars, loving God and serving others, form my priorities, (at least they should!) ‘See, when I shape my priorities by these, then come what may, I know contentment. My dear uneducated, simple mother was a study in contentment . . . not because she didn’t know better, (she wasn’t that simple!), and not because her life was easy, (because it wasn’t), but because she formed her life and spent her days with those two priorities always in sight: ‘today, I will serve God—love him, talk to him, listen to him, see what he wrote in his Word, trust him, and live like I think he would have me’ … Okay, that IS simple living, or a simplified life.
On this, my Spiritual Memorial Day,
I REMEMBER how merciful God has been to me.
I REMEMBER how he has forgiven me when I sinned, even when I knew better, and in my self-centeredness, chose to go my own way.
He never gave up on me,
never stopped loving me, and what’s more than that,
he forgave me, and then … get this,
in his MERCY, he has chosen to use me in little ways and not-so-little ways to impact my world for him.
That is radical.
Really, when it all comes down to it, I REMEMBER . . . and in remembering, THANK GOD for who he is, and that because of who he is, he just keeps on loving me. He is faithful. Because he is faithful, I REMEMBER how he has answered my prayers. Oh man, I can look back at my lined notebooks, filled with written prayers, and then the answers that came . . . the answers that followed.
So, on this my Spiritual Memorial Day, I look back, REMEMBER, and thank God, from whom all blessings flow. I pray that you will take time yourself to STOP, look back and REMEMBER, and then THANK GOD for he is good.
Christine
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